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Mike Stewart awarded waterman of the year

Source: www.honoluluadvertiser.com

posted by Gareth White on 18th December 2007

Check this out guys!

Not only is Mike one of the worlds best boogers, but he's also "lifesaver".

*The following report was sourced from The Honolulu Advertisers website and was written by Dayton Morinaga.

Mike Stewart's legendary status in the sport of bodyboarding is already set.

He can now add another title to his growing status as a waterman.

Stewart was one of two men to receive the Quiksilver Waterman Award two weeks ago. North Shore lifeguard Gerald Balaker was the other recipient.

Stewart is a nine-time former world champion in bodyboarding, and has been a top-10 competitor for more than 25 years. But the award had nothing to do with that.

Stewart, who is from Kailua, Kona, was honored for an extraordinary rescue he made in the rough North Shore surf earlier this year.

"Mike has won so many awards in his life, but this one was really special because of what happened," said his wife, Lisa, who accepted the award because Mike was in the Canary Islands competing in a bodyboarding contest.

Lisa actually started the process when she spotted a man waving his arms, drifting out to sea. Problem was, the sun was setting and the lifeguards in the area had shut down for the day.

She alerted Mike, who called 911, then grabbed his bodyboard and started paddling out — through wave-face heights that were 30 to 40 feet high that day.

Stewart eventually reached the man — a surfer who lost his board in the big surf — and figured out a way for them to share his bodyboard.

Thanks to the 911 call, the last lifeguard on duty that day was able to get on a personal watercraft and find Stewart and the troubled surfer in the surf.

Stewart's wife accepted the award at the opening ceremonies of the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational In Memory Of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay. When the story was announced, the crowd of about 500 — including the world's best big-wave surfers — gave Stewart a rousing ovation.

"It was really overwhelming," Lisa said. "Just to see that response was so rewarding."

Here is what Mike had to say about the rescue.

“I remember this day being one of the best second reef pipe days in quite some time, as it was a big and quite consistent west swell. After a great day of waves I came in late that afternoon. After getting back to the house I was staying at I was relaxing and saw a big set. A few people got swept down the beach. The rip was especially strong due to the large west swell and didn't break up between the Pupukea and Ehukai breaks as it mostly does.

"Two surfers made it to shore but the other didn't make it in. Soon he was waiving his arm in a really bad place towards the inside of Pupukea, which was very heavy. Unfortunately the guards had left. After surfing second reef that day I felt pretty confident that I could get out to this guy, and at least handle dunking waves if I needed to. I also felt that with fins and a bodyboard I was probably best suited to retrieve this person. It was getting late and the victim was quite a ways out and I was concerned that I would loose him once I got into the surf. After calling 911 I instructed my wife to walk in front of where he was with a large white towel so I could at least try to line up with him. When I reached the surfer he was panicked, very drained but conscious and I cautiously approached and tried to calm him down. Some joking around and light encouraging words seemed to work. I gave him my board and put my leash onto him so I wouldn't loose him. We started to head outward for clear water as I did not want to try to go in through the shore break in this area. He seemed to have caught his breath but unfortunately sets started to pump and were now peaking up and breaking on the outside of Pupukea. This is when I realized putting the leash on him might not have been the best idea. I told him I will try to dunk the board and to wait for my cue and try to dive as deep as he could. We got under some of it but pretty much got worked. I then took the leash off him and gave him my board and told him to wait again until I gave him the cue to dive deeper. He made it pretty cleanly although I got pushed back. I quickly tried to paddle out to him and coach him through the process again. This went on for a couple more waves and my distance from him was widening. Had the sets continued I might have lost him, but fortunately they subsided. I got back to him and, gave him back my board again and attached my leash to my foot so that I could swim and pull him in towards gums. My plan was to reattach the leash once I got him into the shore break at gums. Fortunately this is about when the ski showed up.“

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